Jeziorki, dawn, winter

I wake well before dawn, do some writing and observe the cloudless night sky. I can tell that it will be a most perfect dawn. Below: view from the kitchen window into the garden.

I have to get to Platan Park for my first meeting, five and half km from home, by 8am. It's just over an hour's walk in these conditions, so I decide instead rather than walking all the way to stroll up to Puławska, take a bus towards ul. Poleczki, and then walk to my destination.

Setting off up the path that links ul Trombity to ul. Sarabandy (below) shortly before sunrise (7:21 this morning), the temperature was -15C. And *PAFF* there's that old feeling of anomalous familiarity again!

Below: Snow lying heavy on the branches suggesting stillness of the air overnight; plenty of untrodden snow on the ground. The sun is just rising over the Las Kabacki forest.


Left: ul. Sarabandy, drainage ditch to the left. During the June floods the water blocked the road. The ditch is still fuller than usual. A snowdrift has blocked access to the continuation of the footpath between Sarabandy and Klarnecistów ('Clarinettists' Street'); I have to scramble over it, up to my knees in snow. The path (below) itself is slippery, treacherous. An icy dip awaits the incautious!

Below: ul. Drumli ('Jew's Harp Street'), approaching Puławska. Southern Warsaw's infamous artery is bad this morning, as ever. The bus takes 25 minutes to get from here to ul. Poleczki, just over 4km away.

Below: From Puławska I walk across to Poloneza via ul. Wodzireja (lit. 'Dance-leader's Street'; 'Master of Ceremonies Street'). The last bit is without asphalt. Churned up totally by trucks and four-wheel drives, it would have been impassable to pedestrians had the puddles not frozen over solidly. I arrive at Platan Park one hour after leaving home. I could have walked the whole way and had a more aesthetically-pleasing experience, plus more exercise, had I eschewed Puławska and the frustratingly-slow bus ride.